Demoting Jordan Walker shows the ineptitude of the St. Louis Cardinals' management

The St. Louis Cardinals are having another dysfunctional season that puts history repeating itself on full display. John Mozeliak and the front office promised an increase in payroll and providing a winning product to the fans. Fans were promised this in 2023 and then witnessed one of the worst seasons in franchise history. The same promises were preached for 2024. We are almost to September and the Cardinals are collapsing yet again with a losing record and ownership handicapping payroll for years to come. The prestigious quality of the franchise is beginning to diminish as fans are tired of investing in this current product. With the front office getting a complete overhaul very soon, will the next regime operate under the same conditions?

The current front office is also showing how to mismanage young talent on full display. The Cardinals have moved on from many young prospects over the years who developed into stars for their new organizations. Randy Arozarena, Zac Gallen, Sandy Alcantara, and Adolis Garcia. are the main examples. But recently we have seen other players leave St. Louis and thrive for their new teams. Marcell Ozuna has turned into a premier slugger for the Braves. Harrison Bader went on a heater with the Yankees during the 2022 postseason. Matt Carpenter became Babe Ruth with the Yankees. Tyler O'Neill is an above-average outfielder again after hitting rock bottom in his last season with St. Louis. The next players to follow the trend will be Tommy Edman getting the national spotlight in Los Angeles and Dylan Carlson getting into the Tampa Bay experiment lab.

But the biggest story of this mismanagement in 2024 has been centered on Jordan Walker. The highly touted prospect was hyped to be the next developed star in St. Louis. An organization that spent over a decade trying to develop the next big prospect finally got their guy. But since last season, we have now seen three demotions back to Memphis. Once young stars of this stature make it to the big leagues, they tend to stay. Walker being sent down earlier this year was called for given how poor his production was at the plate. This recent demotion though makes zero sense given he has been here for under a week and was on a tear in Memphis for two months.

John Mozeliak addressed the media and stated his decision to call up Walker was to play him every day and further develop his game. Oliver Marmol when asked by the media about his recent lineup construction stated that he needed a reliable right-handed bat to platoon versus left-handed pitchers. With that, we only saw a handful of plate appearances from Jordan Walker over the past week, so the Cardinals continued to deflate his confidence while not figuring out what to do to help him develop within the organization.

With the split opinions from Mozeliak and Marmol on how to use Walker...was this not discussed between management? There is a clear misconception here and it is now evident that neither person is communicating to get on the same page. Marmol is only looking for the right-handed bat that can replace the lack of production from his star corner infield players. Mozeliak thinks Walker is ready to come back up and provide that thump in the lineup that the team desperately needs. Given both levels of management work with each other, how was finding a solution here not more clearly defined?

Jordan Walker is a pawn in a terrible chess game between John Mozeliak and Oliver Marmol. History is about to repeat itself once again and it might flip this chessboard over. The Cardinals will fail to deliver a winning product as promised. The team will fail to make the postseason once again. No accountability will be held for the management team in place. Jordan Walker will be viewed as a depreciated asset and will be shopped during the winter months, The ribbon on top for fans will be the same vagueness preached to them where no changes will be made. In a time of dire need, major changes need to happen for the St. Louis Cardinals to become relevant again.